Missed fourth quarter opportunities doomed Wyoming in a 27-20 overtime loss to San Jose State on Saturday, Oct. 18.
“It was a hard fought game with lots of adversity,” head coach Craig Bohl said. “I thought our football team had great resilience. It was a challenging loss.”
Wyoming was driving late in the fourth quarter with the score tied at 17 when redshirt senior quarterback Colby Kirkegaard missed sophomore tight end Eric Nzeocha. Wyoming settled for a field goal.
“That [third down] play is designed to go to the running back,” Kirkegaard said. “I was immediately reminded that there was an open guy by people on the sidelines. Too bad that was not in the read. In hindsight I wish it was.”
Senior kicker Stuart Williams later missed a potential go-ahead 46-yard field goal as time experienced which then sent the game into overtime. Williams’ kick hit the right upright.
San Jose State received the ball first in OT and scored a touchdown. This put pressure on the Cowboys offense to answer the Spartans’ touchdown. A failed fourth down run by junior running back Shaun Wick ended the game.
“We had the look that we wanted,” Bohl said. “Credit [to] San Jose, they did a nice job on the play.”
Wyoming’s offense struggled for the majority of the game. Through three quarters the Cowboys only mustered 73 yards of total offense and trailed 10-3. Late in the third quarter senior cornerback Blair Burns scored on a strip-and-score that tied the game at 10.
“It kind of looked like our whole team got picked up from that play,” said Burns.
The Cowboy offense did pick it up. In the fourth quarter the Wyoming offense more than doubled its output from the first three quarters by racking up 198 total yards in the fourth.
“We were able to wear the team down,” Bohl said. “7,220 [feet] does make a difference that was a part of our ace in the whole. If we could keep their defense out there we could wear them down.”
Wyoming lost a lot more than just a football game on Saturday. The Cowboys lost senior linebacker and leading tackler Mark Nzeocha to an apparent leg injury. They lost senior defensive end Sonny Puletasi to an injury. Senior cornerback DeAndre Jones left the game with an injury. Senior cornerback Blair Burns got hurt on a couple different occasions but did finish the game.
“Lot of guys went down,” said Bohl in a Monday press conference. “Mark Nzeocha looks doubtful, Jones is probable and Puletasi is questionable [for the upcoming game vs. CSU].”
The injuries could be a result of the defense being out on the field too long. Through the first three quarters the Cowboy offense only had two drives that did not go three and out. San Jose State for the game possessed the ball for nearly 36 minutes and the Cowboys defense during that span recorded 89 tackles.
